Foxconn’s CEO blames iPhone 6 Plus ‘Bendgate’ on rivals

The outspoken CEO of Foxconn Technology Group, the maker of Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus, is scoffing at the idea that the iPhone 6 Plus has a problem with bending if left in a user’s pocket too long, and said rivals were behind the controversy.

“How can a phone bend? This was all caused by distortions from competitors. Don’t blindly listen to it,” Foxconn’s CEO Terry Gou said in news footage posted online this week.

The so-called ‘Bendgate’ erupted last month after pictures and videos were posted to the internet claiming to show how the iPhone 6 Plus could be easily bent while sitting in the user’s pocket or by being manipulated manually. Smartphone rivals including Samsung and LG later mocked Apple on Twitter over the controversy.

Apple, however, said the complaints had been overblown, and that the phone warping was extremely rare.

Gou, whose company is a key Apple supplier, was shown in the news footage using an iPhone 6 Plus. “Hands are made to shake hands, not for bending,” he said, in an apparent dig at videos showing users bending the iPhone 6 Plus with their bare hands.

In June, Gou himself mocked phones designed with curved screens. He was less than impressed with the technology, and joked that the phones were specifically designed to fit in the rears of consumers.

“People are talking about, wow, displays that can transform, but they forget that you have to be able to use the device,” Gou said at the time.